TOKYO: Twenty- and 30-year Japanese government bonds inched lower on Monday as investors took profits to cover losses in Tokyo shares ahead of Sept. 30, when many participants close their books for the first-half.
The 20-year yield was up 0.5 basis point at 1.680 percent , after hitting 1.675 percent, its lowest since October last year.
"Long bonds, which had been performing better than other maturities, may be weighed down by profit-taking in the next few days if shares fall further, but after book closings bonds are likely to be well-supported by cash-rich investors," said Shogo Fujita, chief Japan bond strategist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
The Nikkei share average fell to a six-month intraday low of 8,374.85 on Monday as it caught up with Wall Street losses after a three-day weekend, and as investors worried about Greece's ongoing debt woes and the possibility of default by Athens.
December 10-year JGB futures were up 0.12 at 142.78, extending some gains from earlier this morning as the Nikkei fell below the key 8,400 level, players said.
Cash bonds in medium maturities performed better in tandem with JGB futures, with the five-year yield edging down 0.5 basis point to 0.340 percent .
The benchmark 10-year yield inched down 0.5 basis point to 0.975 percent, hovering near an 11-month low of 0.965 percent marked on Thursday.
Sentiment in the JGB market jumped high into positive territory after the US central bank last week moved to extend the duration of its bond holdings, a Reuters weekly survey showed on Monday.
The survey's JGB bull-bear diffusion index, calculated by subtracting the number of bearish market players from the number of bullish players, surged to plus 26 from minus 4 in the previous survey .
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